What do you know about Royal Jelly? Do you know that it can benefit male fertility, particularly sperm health, just as it protects female fertility and egg health? It does! If you’re battling male factor infertility or simply wanting to ensure you do all you can to pass healthy DNA to your future child, Royal Jelly may be for you.
What is Royal Jelly?
Royal Jelly is a highly nutritious substance secreted by nurse bees to the members of their colonies. It is the only food given to bee larvae while they mature; it only takes three days for them to reach maturity. Royal Jelly is the exclusive food fed to a queen bee her entire life, helping her to be capable of laying A LOT of eggs, roughly between 1,500 to 2,000, each day. The nutrient known to offer her this amazing support and that helps her grow ovaries is the protein royalactin.
Royal Jelly’s Benefits For Male Fertility
Royal Jelly provides men (and women) many nutrients; protein, a broad spectrum of amino acids (for protein building), B-complex vitamins namely vitamins B5 and B6 (pyridoxine) along with folic acid, a small amount of vitamin C, trace minerals like iron, potassium, calcium and silica, simple sugars or quickly-absorbed carbohydrates that help the body to produce energy, fatty acids, and enzymes.
Each of these nutrients can and are known to support the cells of the body, including sperm. They promote hormonal balance, support the adrenal glands for a healthy stress response, protect the liver and boost immune system function and libido. Royal Jelly is also anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antibiotic, and is known for its ability to regulate blood pressure and cholesterol.
While Royal Jelly is often suggested for female egg and fertility health; animal studies prove its potential to also benefit male fertility and sperm health:
- An Egyptian study shares that semen analysis parameters (seminal volume, sperm motility and count) sperm health (morphology and number living versus dead), and testosterone levels of male rabbits under stress due to elevated heat levels (as high as 32*C or 89.6*F) improved after they were administered Royal Jelly.
- A study reported in the Avicenna Journal of Phytomedicine finds sperm rate of maturity, count, motility and DNA integrity improved after rats were treated with Royal Jelly.
- Reports boast Royal Jelly’s ability to reduce the activity of harmful xenoestrogens like BPA (which are known to contribute to and cause situations of excess estrogen), helping to protect a man’s naturally-produced estrogen.
These studies are only just a few on this topic. There are much more if you are interested, a Google Scholar search will lead you to them. An additional promising note is that Royal Jelly may be helpful for men with seemingly spontaneous azoospermia (lack of sperm cells that seems to just appear without reason), although more research is needed in this particular area.
If you try Royal Jelly…
Be sure to choose a high-quality supplement made of freeze-dried raw royal jelly to ensure its nutrients are properly preserved; a supplement such as FertilicaTM Royal Jelly.
Royal Jelly has a long-standing safety record, but if you are allergic to bees, bee products including Royal Jelly are best avoided.
If you try Royal Jelly and have the ability to have a follow-up semen analysis which shows improvement, we’d appreciate hearing about it. More clinical evidence of its effectiveness has the ability to drive the interests of researchers, and will most certainly provide hope for other men faced with the same fertility health challenges.
- Ahmadnia H., Shari N., Alizadeh S., Roohani Z., Kamalati A. and Marjan S.S. (October 28, 2015). Wonderful Effects of Royal Jelly on Treatment of Male- Factor Related Infertility. Austin J Reprod Med Infertil. Volume 2 Issue 6. ISSN : 2471-0393. Retrieved from fulltext_ajrm-v2-id1031.pdf
- Zahmatkesh E., Najafi G., Nejati V. and Heidari R. (2014 Jan.) Protective effect of royal jelly on the sperm parameters and testosterone level and lipid peroxidation in adult mice treated with oxymetholone. Avicenna J Phytomed. 4(1):43-52. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25050300
- Elnagar S.A. (May 20, 2010). Royal jelly counteracts bucks ‘summer infertility’. Animrepord sci. 121(1-2):174-80. doi: 10.1016/j.anireprosci.2010.05.008. Anim Reprod Sci. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20538419
- Nakaya M., Onda H., Sasaki K., Yukiyoshi A., Tachibana H. And Yamada K. (2007 Jan 7). Effect of royal jelly on bisphenol A-induced proliferation of human breast cancer cells. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 71(1):253-5. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17213647
- Rodriguez, H. (n.d.) Fertility Super Food – Royal Jelly. Retrieved from http://natural-fertility-info.com/royal-jelly.html
Elizabeth Willett is the Senior Herbalist with the Natural Fertility Company and head educator at NaturalFertilityInfo.com. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Holistic Health Studies with a specialization is herbalism from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN.
